Victory
by Church Caboose
Summary: Liara is haunted by the decisions she let Shepard make during the war, and now must face her mate's final choice. My entry for the August Writing Competition on Aria's Afterlife


We had won.

Finally the galaxy was safe from the Reapers, but at a terrible cost. The krogan were dying. Countless worlds had been destroyed. Even my home world, Thessia, was left uninhabitable. She said, "Victory at any cost."

What a fool I was to believe her.

How could I argue? How could I possibly contradict _The__ Shepard_? How could I defy my mate?

You have to understand. When the harvest began, the entire galaxy was caught in a slaughter. The Council refused to act, blocked by indecision and debate. It all seems so trivial now. Shepard was the only one strong enough to act, the only one willing to make the difficult choices in order to save us. In the end it worked, the Reapers are now under her control and the cycle was stopped forever. We won.

She said the end justified the means. No one argued with her. I never agreed with her motives, but she was the only one I trusted to save us. Maybe if I had said something after our meld, or the night I spent in her quarters. If I had just seen something! I was too blinded by my fear of the Reapers, and my love of her. At least in the end we had won. We won.

Where are we now? Still trapped on an uncharted planet, by our own will. The Normandy had been repaired quickly; we could have left months ago. After nearly a year we are still content to stay here till our deaths. Our fear of the Reapers never truly ended, but now we fear _her. _When Hackett was first able to establish a communication with us, he informed us of the galaxy's fate. We won.

The Crucible, a weapon from a bygone age, was fired. Shepard had succeeded in its activation, this of course we knew. We fled once the Citadel was open. We never would have suspected what happened after the weapon fired. The Reapers weren't destroyed, like we had all hoped, instead they simply ceased attacking. Every world said the same thing, the Reapers were defeated. Hackett said that Shepard found a way to control them, make them bend to her will. We won!

People rejoiced, their lives had been spared. Galactic civilization would continue. Babies would be born, children raised, and we would live to see another day. Repairs still needed to be made, the destruction left would take time to fix. Fortunately, the Reapers provided assistance. In a matter of days the relays were repaired and ships began returning home. Worlds were rebuilt, and governments reformed. The dead were mourned and the living rejoiced. We won.

Then politics stepped in, leaders were elected, laws enforced. A return to normal meant old rivalries surfaced again. Conflicts began to rise and the idea of more war was spread. Many species still looked towards humanity with suspicion, more still claimed the Reapers were just a ploy to give the Alliance power. After all, a single human had been able to control the most powerful force ever created. We won.

Fittingly, it was the batarians who were the first to resort to violence. Attacking an Alliance fleet that was near a batarian system sparked war. However before the conflict could escalate, the Reapers, who had remained relatively docile, attacked and destroyed every batarian ship. Like a plague, they swept across batarian space destroying every planet causing the species' extinction. Had we won?

Claiming they had no involvement, the Alliance continued to assist the other races in reconstruction. It seemed they were over stepping their power, providing aid to planets that wanted to be left alone. Forcing the new council to accept the Alliance as the peacekeepers of the galaxy. Being Shadowbroker, I was able to find information about the Alliance's new leaders. Every key Alliance figurehead, or politician I found had ties to Cerberus. Surely there must of been some mistake. Cerberus had been destroyed, any remaining member wouldn't put themselves in the public light like this. Had we won anything at all?

Stubbornly, I refused to believe it. Surely Shepard wouldn't allow for the Reapers to commit such cruel acts. She may have had her flaws, but she wouldn't kill off an entire race and allow the Alliance to bully the others into submission. There had to be an explanation, I wouldn't accept anything less. I had lost my love, and I refused to believe the destruction she had caused. We had already lost.

It seems the Goddess had other plans, one by one planets fell under Reaper control. Once every living creature was destroyed, they would move onto another. The Alliance covered it all up, claiming that they too were suffering under the hands of the human controlled Reapers. The truth, if any race spoke out against humanity in any negative way, they would find themselves fighting alone against the full force of the Reapers. This was all done by her, the Alliance only reaped the benefits. There was no victory. We lost

She played us all as fools. She had always believed in Cerberus' pro human attitude. It wasn't until she gained control of the Reapers did she turn into something worse. We've sat in fear for over a year, praying that she would leave us be. All we can do is watch as the galaxy is destroyed. Our last update from Hackett was over a month ago. He claimed to be speaking out against the atrocities, and we fear the Alliance had caused his disappearance. We lost.

I never could have known she would do this. I knew Cerberus had changed her I never would have believed her capable of _this_! I loved her and it blinded me to the point...

* * *

I couldn't continue, "Glyph, stop the recording."

"Of course Dr. T'Soni. Will there be..."

"No! Just leave me be," the damn VI just sat there and stared at me. Finally it left my sight. I didn't care, I couldn't care about anything at this point. It was too painful to think about anything. My door would remain locked, hopefully forever.

The galaxy was being destroyed, by the woman I loved no less. Traynor suggested we record what was happening, in order to better preserve the knowledge. Normally, I would have agreed with her. But, the mere thought remembering the past brought me to tears. Even now I had my head buried in my pillow, biting the sheets to hold back the sobs.

All I wanted was for the pain to go away, to stop this endless suffering. Most of the crew just looked at me with fear and suspicion, as if they think I in someway caused this disaster. Even Joker seemed to think less of me, he would never say it but I could see it in his eyes. No one trusted me, I didn't blame them. I couldn't even look myself in the mirror.

Every night I cried myself to sleep, let the tears streak down to the floor, while my cries for peace went unheard. Tonight my eyes were dry, instead of tears they instead burned and itched from over use. For nearly a year I've cried. I am sick of crying.

I stand up off the bed, I know now how to end the pain.

"Glyph, lock the door," immediately the holographic lock turns red. It takes every bit of courage I have left to simply move towards the console.

"Dr. T'Soni, is something wrong?"

I don't answer it, instead continuing with my work at the terminal.

"Dr. T'soni, you are accessing my data banks. Is there some way I can assist you?"

"No, Glyph, there isn't."

A moment later and the VI's memories is wiped, it no longer has any knowledge of me or the war. It's completely useless now, and if anyone were to check they would learn nothing.

The next part is more difficult. It required no skill on my part, just the spine to do it. All I needed was a finger and the pain would go away. Biting my lip, I walk over to my desk, stopping my hands before I can open the draw. Freezing in place, breathe deeply. I want the pain and betrayal to end, there's no way I can go on for another 900 years with the galaxy being destroyed by _her._

I open the drawer to see my pistol.

**AN: **Ok, I'm freaking out a bit here. This is the first time I've written in first person and the first time I've done anything like this of the sort. So PLEASE no hating. Only constructive criticism allowed here.

This is of course for the August Writing Competition on Aria's Afterlife. The goal was to make a post ending story using a character who worked for, or worked with Cerberus. When I started this I intended to have the actual ending from my first play through, Paragon-Control-Galaxy saved. But then I thought why not have a little fun and explore an idea I heard before. Somebody I saw on the Youtubes says that the Control ending is but a trap, and would eventually come to corrupt even a Paragon Shepard. So what if a Renegade Shep, one who liked Cerberus and supported them, took control. She would fuck the other races that's what! And that's where this idea came from, Shepard becomes the thing she set out to destroy. Hopefully you like it.

Well thanks to Joryn282, Sharrukin, and WordKrush for liking the story and leaving some very helpful reviews! It helped a lot.

And of course thank you thebluninja, for not only putting on such an awesome contest, but also for not kicking me from it after I was banned from the forum. I really can't thank you enough for that, it was seriously awesome of you to do it.


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